


Time Loop n+1

by alchemise



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Kissing, M/M, Time Loop, Trick or Treat: Chocolate Box, Trick or Treat: Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-18 03:17:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12379803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemise/pseuds/alchemise
Summary: Ray is stuck in a time loop on Lian Yu, with only Slade Wilson for company.





	Time Loop n+1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [This](https://archiveofourown.org/users/This/gifts).



> Takes place during season 2 of Legends, season 5 of Arrow.
> 
> Thanks to LadySilver for the beta!

**Loop n**

He keeps returning to this place. He doesn't know why (the physics don't make sense when he thinks about them, but then again, _the physics not making sense_ was starting to describe his life), but every ten days he's back on this beach. It's desolate and eerily still, waves lapping at the shore, the jungle on the opposite side, filled with distant sounds of nature that were never his forte.

Ray has learned some of the rules, though. The knowledge was hard won, but he thinks he's got it down now. A quarter mile into the jungle there were the remains of someone's camp. No supplies, but clearly someone had been there once. There were also booby traps surrounding it. He's figured out that it's not worth going there. A half a mile east there was fresh water—with a rather lovely waterfall and a pit filled with bones. Just offshore was the wreckage of a ship. Now just a burnt out husk. Otherwise the water was calm around the island. He's gone diving a few times and saw what looked like a submarine deep down but also sharks, lots of sharks.

Down the shore was the bunker.

He spent most of his time returning to it. Over and over again.

The bunker. And the man inside.

…………

"Who the hell are you?" The man in the cell stood up as Ray entered.

Ray took a breath, wanting to get it all out at once. "I'm Ray Palmer. You're Slade Wilson. We're caught in a time loop that only I can remember. I don't know what's causing it or how to break us out of this. We've had this same conversation mmmnnrrr times before, Istoppedkeepingtrackbecauseitwasfreakingmeouttoomuch." Ray ended in a rush. Not for the first time he wished he had a stop watch. He thought this might be his fastest time through his spiel yet.

Slade frowned at him. "Why would I believe any of…"

Ray cut him off. "We have done this many times before. Sooooo many times." He ticked details off his fingers as he went. "You have a son named Joe who you'd give anything to find. You were once injected with some crazy superpower drug called Mirakuru that messed with your head. You have a really complicated relationship with Oliver Queen. You kind of sort of tried to destroy Star City with an army of supersoldiers. Now you're locked in a prison run by ARGUS on Lian Yu and you have a lot of regrets and wish you could have done things differently. You told me all of this so that I could tell you in future loops so you'd believe me at the start and we could try to _finally fix this_." Ray knew he was sounding a bit desperate and tried to calm down. The desperate loops never ended well.

Slade stared at nothing and kept frowning. Finally, he looked up at Ray and spoke, "Alright. What have I got to lose. You let me out of here, I'll help you break the time loop."

Ray could almost hear the air quotes on the last bit but didn't care. Slade never fully believed him at first. But he always did by the end. Ray sighed as he opened the door and released the only friend he had in this mess. In ten days, he'd probably be back here doing this all over again.

…………

**Loop n + 1**

Ten days later, Ray woke up on the beach, alone.

The last loop hadn't been too bad, all things considered. Neither of them had died horribly, for one. The two men had spent most of the week and a half wandering the island and talking. Well, Ray had talked a lot; Slade had mostly let him babble while enjoying his freedom. It had been _pleasant_. Those ten days had also given Ray a new idea he couldn't wait to try out with this loop.

He ran to the ARGUS bunker, down the stairs, and approached Slade's cell, panting and out of breath. Slade sat there as though he were waiting for Ray. There were a few awkward gulps for air as Ray got through his spiel, then he was opening the cell door as had become usual for them. 

It had gotten so easy by this point. Slade seemed more than willing to go along with whatever new plan Ray suggested. And they had tried _everything_. Days spent wandering every inch of the island, digging into what little technology ARGUS used to operate the prison. They'd even tried building a raft a few times and sailing away from Lian Yu. So many different plans, with Ray and Slade working side by side every time. Always just the two of them; for reasons Ray hadn't worked out, no one else on the island was caught in the time loop with them. Ray figured that, realistically, only his friends stood a chance at breaking through the time loop from the outside. But right now, that wasn't really his top concern.

Ray hoped the instant easy trust he felt from Slade stayed true this loop, as, instead of stepping aside so they could leave the bunker together, Ray leaned forward and kissed him. 

He'd only had a vague outline of this plan in his head. Ray just knew that he needed something different this time. He didn't really think this had any shot at breaking the time loop, but any thought other than the two of them, right then and there, rushed out of Ray's mind as their lips met. It turned out that Slade was a really great kisser.

It also turned out that Slade was into this as much as Ray was. He matched Ray's kiss with equal force—then greater—as Slade grabbed Ray's shoulders, turning him and pushing him up against the cell bars. Ray let himself be guided, lost in the feel of the other man's mouth and hands. As Slade pressed his weight into Ray, it felt like every inch of their bodies touched and Ray's attention drifted from their mouths down to other body parts.

There was a hunger in Slade's kiss that clearly hadn't been sated for some time. As Ray's hands explored the man's body, Ray realized he felt the same hunger and greedily gave into filling it.

What felt like an eternity later, Slade pulled back and stared at Ray. "Is this how every one of your time loops goes? Because if so, it doesn't seem too bad."

"Ah. No. No, this is new. Got to mix things up, I guess." Ray laughed a little awkwardly. He definitely hadn't planned for what would happen after he kissed Slade.

Slade snorted. "Something tells me it's a bit more than that. I'm not complaining. So what's next? I vote we at least leave this damn bunker."

Ray had no argument there. The island wasn't exactly welcoming, but there were certainly nicer places to spend ten days than underground in a prison.

…………

By Ray's estimate, they had about thirty minutes remaining before the loop reset. Of all the times he'd woken up alone on the beach, he was dreading the next one the most. Now he would have to leave behind something he really didn't want to reset. He watched Slade poke at the bonfire and wished more than anything that they could have more than ten days. Just to find out where all this could go.

Without looking up, Slade seemed to sense his mood. "Stop being so damn morose."

Ray snorted. "Come on, this whole thing has kind of sucked. I mean, these last ten days have been pretty great, but I don't know if we'll ever get out of this."

"I've been locked up by ARGUS for three years now, much of that time completely alone. Before that, I'd had my mind taken from me by a serum that led me to do a whole lot of awful shit I wish more than anything I could take back. Then there was just trying to survive this island and way before I got here, more violence and loss than I like to think about." Slade stopped playing with the fire, looked right at him, and continued, "Living in ten days chunks with you, here, it doesn't seem so bad. It might not be the life either of us wants, but it could be a hell of a lot worse."

Ray didn't know what to say in response so instead he reached out and touched Slade's arm, resting his fingers lightly on him. Slade was right. They might have been trapped, but now that Ray had gotten the hang of things, he knew these past ten days wouldn't be a fluke. They could have this—whatever this was that they had—again.

Seeming to understanding where Ray's mind was, Slade laid his hand on Ray's and leaned toward him. Ray's mind briefly wondered if the heat he felt was more from Slade's body than the fire. Now this part, Ray definitely wouldn't mind repeating.

Before things could continue further, the Waverider appeared in the sky and quickly descended to land nearby.

Both men climbed to their feet. "They found us!" Ray shouted, "I knew they wouldn't give up!"

"This is your team?"

Ray smiled happily. "We're finally free. We can go home."

He ran toward the ship, with Slade following slower behind him.

The Waverider's door opened and Sara and Rip jumped out, moving quickly to Ray. He noticed Sara's eyes slip to Slade, but before he could interject to stop her from doing something rash, she spoke. She sounded worriedly calm, like she was trying to persuade him to go along with her. "Ray, you have to come with us now. We only have minutes before the time loop resets and we lose our chance to pull you out of it. We only have one shot to collapse the loop but you have to be onboard the Waverider for it happen."

Ray ignored the undercurrent to her voice that he didn't want to think about. "Thank you thank you thank you. I just… it's been so _long_ and I couldn't find a way out and now we're free."

Slade spoke up, quietly. "She meant you, Ray. You have to go with them. Not me."

Ray didn't understand what he was hearing. "No! Don't you see? You can join us. I mean, it's kind of a weird life—stopping time aberrations and trying not to screw up the past—and yeah, sometimes really awful things happen and you get trapped hanging out with dinosaurs for a while and sure, we do occasionally make things worse than they already were and have to fix that and a lot of people seem to want us dead, and I know you've got history with Sara, but we're all screw-ups if I'm being honest and we're getting better at what we do. I think so, anyway. And you can be a part of this! And…" He looked between Slade and Sara, who were exchanging information that Ray wasn't privy to but, judging by their body language, he could guess wasn't good.

Sara stared at Slade and said, "We can't take you with us."

This was the last thing Ray expected to happen. His joy over rescue was gone, replaced with fear. "What? No! Look, Sara, I know he tried to kill you once. But it was years ago and he's different and you're different and that's got to mean something."

Sara turned to Ray. She looked sad, like this wasn't her choice. "It's not about the past. It's about the future. We found out while researching the time loop: that Slade was here and has to stay here, on Lian Yu. He matters to the timeline in a way that we don't. Taking him out of it would cause unknown changes to the future. In a few minutes the loop will reset one last time, and he'll return to ten days ago and time will continue on." Then she addressed Slade, "I can't tell you what will happen to you; there's too much risk in knowing your own future. But I can tell you that you won't be in that prison much longer."

Slade nodded and sighed.

Ray was starting to feel desperate. "But you'll wake up ten days ago and you won't _remember_."

For the first time, Rip spoke up, "But that's not quite true, is it? See, time loops are fundamentally unstable. They _bleed_. It's never just one person caught in the middle but everyone they come in contact with as well. Mr. Wilson was as much a part of this loop as you were, Mr. Palmer."

Slade closed his eyes and nodded again. Finally, he looked at Ray. "Yeah. When you showed up ten days ago, I recognized you. I just didn't know why or how. But I knew I could trust you and… I wanted to. I think it's been like that for a while."

Ray wasn't sure where this was going. "So what does that mean?"

Slade snorted in apparent exasperation. "It means I'm not going to forget you, idiot. Not entirely, anyway. You're a time traveler, Ray. This isn't goodbye. You can find me again." He smiled and put his hand on Ray's shoulder.

For the second time since seeing the Waverider, Ray felt hope. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I am. Just how about we don't meet up on this damn island next time?"

Ray weakly laughed. "It's a deal. I'll see you again soon, okay?" He needed just one last reassurance.

Slade nodded, without hesitation, his hand brushing Ray's neck. It was enough.

Ray followed Sara and Rip onto the ship. He didn't say goodbye—because it wasn't goodbye—and he never looked away from Slade until the door closed. As awful as being trapped in the time loop had been, something good had come of it. Something new, that the both of them would pick up again, soon. There were advantages to being a time traveler, after all.


End file.
